Gladius Mundus Online
by Midori Hotaru
Summary: Video games are fun, but that doesn't mean that we'd want to live through them.
1. Calibrating

Yes. I'm alive, and I'm actually posting something after months and months of high school. If you do read my other stories, then I assure you that I'll post more of them eventually. This just kind of gave me inspiration to write again, so I'll probably be working on this more. Also if you have read or watched SAO, then you should know that this doesn't exactly take place in the same world as it...yeah, it's a completely new game and world that I conjured up...this should be interesting.

**_Disclaimer : This is a fan made spin off of the anime and light novel Sword Art Online. I don't own either of them, or the games mentioned above, but I do own my writing._**

* * *

Don't deny it.

Whether it be Cooking Mama on the DS lite, Tactics Ogre on the Game Boy Advanced, Pokemon Snap on the Nintendo 64, Team Fortress 2 on your computer using Steam, or Pacman at a local arcade, people have played video games at one point or another in their lives.

We get addicted, get confused over complex story lines, and get angry over over powered bosses. We laugh at the character's jokes and moments of stupidity, we fall in love with them and cry when they die.

Though playing as characters like Lightening in Final Fantasy XIII is fun and all (well, for me and the people who like the game at least), I'm more of a fan of being yourself in games, like in an online RPG.

On the internet, we can start fresh. We be whoever we want to be, talk to whoever we want, and be friends with people from all over the world.

It's a sweet escape from the pressures of the real world. Sure, it would only last until your mom or dad called you down for dinner, or the power got knocked out by a storm for the hard core gamers, but it was still worth hours of sitting infront of a screen.

I knew that, so did my cousin, and so did my friends and the thousands of other people who played the game along with us.

We never intended for an extended stay.


	2. Login

Just so you know, these chapters are going to be a lot longer than anything else I've ever written so it's probably going to be a while before I put up the next chapter.

On another note, I'd like to thank my friend Calissa Pacific for being my beta reader for this. ( u/3406613/Calissa-Pacific)

**_Disclaimer : This is a fan made spin off of the anime and light novel Sword Art Online. I don't own either of them or the games referenced below, but I do own my writing and the characters in them._**

* * *

I rarely got mail. Letters were things I usually got on birthdays with a stick of my favorite flavor of gum or a few dollars, and all the packages we got were usually my dad's tennis equipment or some books my mom bought for my brothers on Amazon.

It wasn't my birthday, but the package wasn't long enough to be a tennis racket and to wide to be a package of my mom's books.

"What is it then…" I said as I ran my fingers over the tape on the top.

I read the address written in sharpie on the top on the box.

"It's from…Virginia?"

After carrying the box to the kitchen and taking a butter knife from a drawer, I sliced open the tape holding the box closed.

I was surprised when I found cables, a manual, something that looked like helmet, a CD case, and an envelope with my name written on it.

Ripping open the envelope, I saw it was from my older cousin.

I know you love video games and what not, so I decided to give this game to you. You've probably seen the trailers or read about it somewhere, but it's called Gladius Mundus Online. That's the CD case in the box. It's a basic fantasy VRMMO, but I've heard some great things about it. If you've read the news about it, you should know already that the people who made GMO only made 10,000 copies of the game, so take care of it and don't get it scratched.

Everything else in the box is for the Nerve Gear. I know you've never used one before, but the manual for calibrating and using it should be in the box when you open it. (if it isn't, you could probably google it or something)

You're probably wondering why I'm getting all of this for you, right? Well, I lied about getting it for you on purpose. My mom accidentally got two of the copies of the game when she preordered it (probably wasn't by accident but whatever), and since you're more of a gamer than most girls I thought you might like it. Maybe we could team up sometime and do some dungeon crawling together or something. My user's going to be Twist (as usual : P) and I'll meet you in the center of the Exordium at 2:00 on Feb. 10 (the day that the server's going online) if you're up for it and the package gets to you on time.

See you then,

Aaron

I couldn't believe it.

GMO was one of the biggest games in the history of gaming, and it was sitting on my kitchen counter.

That was freaking AWESOME. Plus today was February 10, so I could actually start playing!

After rapidly putting my information into the Nerve Gear, setting up the game in my room, I started playing GMO.

Well, more or less. The second I was done customizing my character (which was about as long and tedious as it was in Skyrim), I was teleported to a town called "The Exordium" according to the small tab that showed up in the corner of my vision.

The area I had been beamed into looked like the basic towns you saw in video games, a plaza lined with houses and shops with both players and NPCs walking around and going about their own business as the bell in clock tower in the center tolled, signaling the hour, 2:00.

Good, I was on time.

Before I could move to look around the town for Aaron, I saw a box of text appear in front of me. Reading it aloud I said, "Welcome to the tutorial for Gladius Mundus Online! To continue the tutorial, swipe downwards with your dominant hand. To skip the tutorial, press the close button in the upper left hand corner."

Since I obviously knew nothing about the game, I swiped down with my right hand and was surprised when a few icons and a new text box popped up in front of my face.

"This is the main menu," I read. "This is where-"

"Are you going to read this the entire time, or go and actually play the game?"

I turned around to see another player. He had black hair with his bangs swept over his eyes. Looking at the health bar floating at his shoulder, I saw that his name was Twist…wait.

"Aaron?"

"Huh?"

"Dude, it's me. Your fourteen year old, cousin from Wisconsin."

"Wait…" he looked at my health bar, seeing my screen name. "Dakota? Are you kidding me?"

I shrugged. "I like the name. Plus I was thinking of trolling people by making them think I was a dude or something."

He gave me a look. "Whatever. Online, I'll call you Dakota and you'll call me Twist alright?"

"Fair enough."

"Anyways, you do know the tutorial just tells you how to work the main menu right?"

"What!" I said. "How come there's no tutorial for fighting?!"

He shrugged. "Maybe the developers thought it was better for the players to learn from experience."

"How the heck am I going to learn this…" I said softly, looking at the handle of the sword at my belt.

"Well, I've been here for a few hours, so I've got a little experience with the fighting style, so I guess I can teach you."

"Wait, really?" I said.

"Yeah, sure. Why not." he said.

"…what's the catch?"

"You make this an all nighter, and pay for all the stuff we buy since I blew all my gold on equipment."

I sighed. "Deal."

It turns out that fighting with a sword was a bit more complicated than I thought. In GMO, the enemy you're trying to hit actually tries to dodge your attacks instead of just standing still like in Pokemon, and instead of just watching your HP go down after each attack, you can feel the hit you take.

It's not that pleasant when the enemy you're fighting is a boar that keeps charging you.

And besides you gasping for breath when the boar hits you in the stomach, all you can hear is your "mentor" laughing at you.

I growled at Twist. "Why won't you help me?!"

"Because one" he said grinning. "it's fun to watch the noobs struggle,"

I frowned.

"and two, it's a learning experience."

"Screw learning experiences," I said, getting up and clutching my stomach. "Tell me how to hit the dang thing!"

"Dude, calm your tits." he said, drawing his sword. "It's all in the motion." he said, drawing his sword. "There're this thing called lock on, where if you do the motion just right, your blade starts glowing, and when you swing, the system makes sure you hit your target."

I gave him a look. "Um, can you explain how exactly you do it?"

"To put it simply, you hold you sword like you're about to swing it. When you see your blade start glowing, that means skill activated and you can swing."

"Ok, I'll try it." I said, taking out my sword again. I took a deep breath and held the sword like I was about to swing it. I looked at sword again, and was surprised to see it glowing a neon green.

"That's it!" he said. "Now attack!"

I nodded before lunging forward.

There was a flash of green as my blade cut along the boar's side, making a pixelated red line.

I watched as the boar disintegrated, and a text box appeared, congratulating me on beating my first enemy.

"That…was AWESOME!" I said jumping up and cheering! "That was so cool! Did you see that?! I sliced that thing into bacon strips!" I said swinging my sword again and looking at Twist.

Twist laughed. "Nice job. You've beaten the equivalent of a slime."

I stopped swinging my sword. "…what?" I looked around to see more boars spawning. "Aw…"

"Still, felt good to be able to actually use the sword though, right?"

I nodded. "No kidding. My heart's still pumping and I've got adrenaline and everything!" I said, putting a hand on my still fast beating heart.

"Well come on, let's go. There's more bacon to be beaten!"

That's basically how my first day in Arenway (what the land in GMO was called according to a certain someone) went. I went around beating the pork out of the boars while Twist gave me some pointers and telling me that there was a lot harder things to learn in GMO when I got frustrated. Soon I could beat the enemies near the town easily.

"That was pretty fun." I said, stretching before sitting on the grass and looking at the scenery.

Honestly, the place reminded me of something out of Spirited Away. Rolling hills covered in green grass, dotted with what I assumed were either boars, other monsters, or flower patches, and a sparkling river with a few houses on the banks, and a few mountains on the horizon.

"This place is beautiful." I said. "A lot nicer than where I live this time of year."

"How is Wisconsin now anyway?" asked Twist.

"It's freezing still." I said. "Yesterday it started snowing again, but then it all melted by the time I got home. Then the next day, all the water froze over and I saw a couple of cars that slid into a ditch."

"Damn." he said. "Good thing I rarely get snow."

"Probably better than having it really warm like in Australia though." I said. "You can easily warm yourself up, but it's harder to cool yourself down. Your Ozzy friends would know."

Before he could reply, my stomach growled.

"Ugh, I've been killing monsters for hours. Maybe I should log out to get something to eat."

"Nope, you can't do that."

I gave him a look. "And why the heck not?"

"Dude, logging out breaks our deal." said Twist. "Anyways, we could always go to town and get something to eat." he said. "If you eat here, it tricks your body into feeling full."

"Wait, really?" I said.

"You have to pay for it though."

I frowned at him. "Fine then, let me check how much gold I have."

I opened my menu, to look at how much gold I had when I noticed something.

"There's no log out."

"Huh?"

"Twist, there's no log out icon on the menu." I said looking up at him.

"It should be there." he said, crouching down next to me.

Seeing that there was no log out button on my menu, he looked at his own menu. "I don't have one either." he said.

"Maybe it's a bug." I said. "The game was in beta right before this right?"

"True, but how can someone forget the log out button?…have you tried calling the Game Keeper?"

"Game Keeper?"

"You know, the guy you call if you're having any problems with the game."

Twist pointed to an icon with a person with a red clock concealing his face.

I clicked the icon, but after ten minutes of waiting the game keeper never picked up. "Does it usually take this long?"

"I wouldn't think it would..."

"Are there any other ways to log out?" I asked. "Like if there was a power outage or something?"

"I don't think that'll happen." said Twist. "The Nerve Gear has it's own battery, so it can run on it's own."

I frowned. "Could someone take the Nerve Gear off your head?"

"I don't think so, but if that's the case then I'm not getting it off anytime soon. My mom gets home late, and she'll get pissed at me for playing to many video games."

"Dang," I said. "The door to my room's locked and the twins'll probably think that I'm taking a nap or something and won't check till tomorrow morning…great."

"That's not the biggest issue here." Twist said, suddenly serious. "If this was a real problem, they would have made an announcement about people not being able to log out…weird."

BONG.

We both turned towards the sound.

"That sounds like the clock tower." I thought, looking in the direction of the Exordium.

The clock tower rang three more times, saying that it was four o'clock.

Immediately after the final toll, a sort of tone sounded, signaling that there was going to be an announcement.

But instead of hearing a voice explaining the problems with logging out, we heard a beep come from our menus and saw a small window containing a video pop up from it.

When the video started playing, it showed a man who looked exactly like the Game Master from the menu.

"Attention players of Gladius Mundus Online," said the Game Keeper. "My name is Damion Conleth. As of now, I am the sole person controlling this world."

"By now you should have already noticed that the logout button is missing from your main menu. This is not a bug, or a glitch in the game. In fact, this is a feature of GMO."

"Feature?" I thought. "What idiot makes a game you can't log out of?"

"There is no way you can log out of GMO from your place inside the game, and neither can anyone on the outside by shutting down or removing the Nerve Gear. If they do try to remove the Nerve Gear, the transmitter inside will emit a microwave that will destroy your brain."

"What person makes a game system that can kill you!" I said.

"What kind of bull shit is this…" said Twst.

"Unfortunately, some of the players families and friends ignored the warnings, and removed the Nerve Gear. From this alone, two hundred thirteen players have died."

The screen showed various clips showing various news anchors and networks, broadcasting the deaths of the players.

"Why…why would he do this…"

"Because their deaths are being broadcasted world wide, your chance of death by this cause is very slim. I hope that you all will be able to enjoy the game, but remember this. There is no longer a way to respawn in the game. If your health drops to zero, you'll die in both the game and the real world."

"…what."

"There is only one means to escape the game. To complete the game. You all started in the Exordium, the beginning area of the game, and the center of the Kingdom of Arenway. You must make your way through the seven realms of Arenway and collect the swords of the kings who have once lived here by passing the tests they have left behind. Once they are collected at the Exordium, you will clear the game and you will all be able to leave and go home."

Seven swords? Can't be to hard though, right…right?

"Before you all start on your journey, I have a present, an item for each of you."

The video closed for a moment, letting me go to my inventory. I clicked on the icon, but I was suspicious about this item. This was being given to us by the man who made a game that you couldn't log out of and could die in, and had caused the supposed deaths of two hundred thirteen people already. Should I really trust anything he says?

When I saw that the item was an hour glass, I thought why the heck not.

Click on the item, a small hour glass fell into my hands.

I honestly didn't know what to do with it at first, but then I heard Twist gasp.

I turned to see him being engulfed by sand from the hour glass.

The next thing I knew, I was swallowed by sand too. As soon as it cleared, I spit out the sand that had gotten into my mouth and looked at Twist. Only, instead of seeing Twist, I saw the face of my cousin, brown hair, freckles and everything.

I didn't get what had really happened until I saw a glade of my reflection in the hour glass. I saw that I looked exactly like I did in the real world. Green eyes, brown hair like Twist's in the messiest braid on Earth, and…well, I couldn't see much else since I didn't have my glasses. That was definitely me, and not the avatar I had created several hours ago.

"How the heck does that even work!" I said.

"The Nerve Gear covered your entire head with a signaling device so that you'll be able to see in the game, which is why people who need glasses could see in the game." said Aaron. "Which should mean that it can see what your face. But our height and body shape..."

"Wait, you calibrate the Nerve Gear before you use it since you have to be able to feel your body all over in the game, right?" I said. "That must be where it got that information."

"But there's still one thing." said Aaron. "Why do all of this?"

"He'll probably tell us." I said, pointing to the video screen on my menu.

"Right now, you're probably wondering, 'Why?' Why would Damion Conleth, developer of Gladius Mundus Online and the Nerve Gear, do all this? My goal has already been achieved. I created Gladius Mundus Online for one reason and one reason alone…to create the world and intervene in it."

Twist's eye twitched. "…What the fu-"

"And now, it is complete. This ends the tutorial for the official launch of Gladius Mundus Online. Good luck, to you all."

…honestly, I expected him to say, "Happy Hunger Games, and may the odds be ever in your favor." afterwards.

…great. I was stuck in a game that was basically the Nuzlocke Challenge, with you as the Pokemon and just to make it better, I was legally blind and had to survive. Just great.

Before I could openly express my feelings about the current situation using some colorful language, there was a beep from my menu.

I opened my menu, but before I could attempt and fail to open whatever was making my menu beep, I felt someone grab my hand.

"It's ok, it's me." said Twist.

I felt him guide my hand to click whatever was beeping. He selected a few things, before my vision somehow returned. I touched my face to find that there were goggles on my face. "What, did you-?"

"You need glasses right?" he said. "Apparently the face equipment focus's the wearers vision, so I guessed that it'd help you with your sight problem."

"Thanks…" That's when I remembered something. "Don't you have any friends playing this game with you?" I asked. "Like the Australians you play League of Legends with? Shouldn't you try to find them?"

"One of them got a copy of the game." he said, opening his menu. "But he said that he wanted to try it solo. He's probably still in the Exordium."

"Oh…"

After some clicking, I saw another small window appear in front of me. Seeing it was a friend request from Twist, I clicked yes. When another window popped up asking if I wanted to join his party, I clicked yes again.

"Thanks for letting me team up with you." I said. "So…what do we do now?"

"I think we should go to the next town."

"Why?" I asked. "Couldn't we just stay here and train?"

"That's what everyone else is thinking." he said. "The resources in a virtual MMORPG are limited, that includes money and experience points too."

"Really?"

He nodded. "Since everyone's going to be training here, around the Exordium, the areas around here are going to be wiped clean in a matter of days, hell, maybe even hours if enough people stay here and grind long and hard enough."

"…you figured out all of this, how?"

"One of my friends was a beta tester in the game." he said, equipping some armor I guessed he'd gotten from the hours he'd spent here. "He wouldn't shut up about GMO when he did play the game, and he mentioned the limited resources the game had. Come on," he said, gesturing for me to follow. "Let's go."

"Huh?"

"You're coming with me, aren't you?" he said.

"...It's kind of a stupid question, but why do you want to team up with me?"

"Dude, you're my younger cousin." he said, patting my head. "It's kind of my job to keep an eye on you. Plus there's more strength in numbers and I wouldn't be able to look any anyone in our family if you died."

"You better not let me die!" I said, smirking.

"Trust me, you won't die on my watch!" he said, smirking back at me. "Come on, let's go then!" Twist started running.

I followed after him, and away the Exordium. From then, I felt that we would get stronger and that we would survive to see our families again, and we would do it all together.


End file.
